Traveling again

Dam has seven siblings. Getting them together all at the same time is a miracle. The last time we were all together was shortly after Dam and I were married. Well, some how Manda, Dam's younger sister, accomplished this miracle. Saturday, June 5th, the whole Valencic clan came together for her wedding.


When I heard that the wedding was going to be at the Nauvoo temple, I was excited because I love visiting that sleepy little town. The LDS church does an excellent job recreating the original city. Bean had a great time playing on old main street as well as visit cousins.

The night before the wedding there was a bar-b-Que so that the Valencics could meet the Wilsons (Manda's future in-laws). Dam's oldest brother, Tom, was there with his family and Bean immediately latched onto Benjamin (Tom's second oldest son). Even though there is a eleven year gap Bean enjoys hanging out with his cousin Benjamin the most.

I never thought that I would pack a sewing machine with me to help prep for a wedding, but I did for this one. Because of not having a permanent residence for two years my closet has been reduced to what I could fit in a suit case. Not a single item that I had in possession were Kelly green, royal blue or yellow, so I went on line shopping (Manda wanted the girls of the family wearing dresses that were Kelly green, royal blue or yellow for the wedding). The dress that I found was a cute 50's era piece. The only problem was that the hemline was two inches too short and I did not have enough time to return the dress and order a new one by the day of the wedding. As a quick fix I decided to add a yellow ruffle to the hem of the dress. The only problem was that I did not have time to fix the dress before driving to Nauvoo (I was busy making hair accessories for the sisters of the bride and groom). I have to say that I am so grateful that my mom taught me how to sew.

Time to Move Again

For the past few months Dam, Bean and I have been living in my parent's house, in Boise, while our house, in St Louis, is being rented. Our adventures here have been wonderful, but it is time to move back to our house!! In many ways I dreaded the four day trek back to St Louis, but how else were we going to get our stuff there?

So on May 11 we packed our little Kia to the gills and took off the next morning. Our destination? Salt Lake City, Utah! Our friends, Marren and Jeff Copeland, let us crash at there place for the night.
I have to say if you ever want to have the best smoothies in the world go to the Copelands and have Marren make you one. I'd drive back to Salt Lake just for one.


Our next stop was Rawlins, Wyoming. If I ever have to stay in Wyoming ever again I will make sure that it is Jackson Hole or not at all. The hotel we stayed at needed to be demolished, but it was stay there with two rooms or go to another hotel and stay there with one room. We needed the two rooms because Bean has gotten used to sleeping in a room by himself. I have tried sleeping in the same room with him and we did a fine job of waking each other up multiple times during the night.

After getting checked into our rooms Dam and I quickly learned 22 month-old and adjoining rooms equals trouble. Bean was playing on the bed in the adjoining room when I walked into the other room to grab my phone. Next thing I new the door to the adjoining room slammed shut and I immediately knew we were in trouble. I had safety locked the door to the room Bean was in because he kept running up to the door, opening it and then running out into the hallway, so Bean was locked in his room with no way for us to get in. I told Dam what was going on and then ran down to the front desk to get help. It was just our luck that the maintenance man had gone home for the day. Fortunately the gal working the front desk was able to get the maintenance guy on the phone and he told her a way to jimmy the safety lock open. When I finally got back up to our rooms poor Bean was crying hysterically because he could not understand why Dad could not open his door. After a few tries we got the door open and vowed never again to allow Bean to be alone in the spare room by himself.

Our next two days of driving were pretty uneventful. To keep myself awake I started playing the license plate game: every time I saw a license plate from a new state I wrote it down. The only states that I did not get were most of the southern states, some of the New England states and Hawaii. Arriving at my sister's house Saturday was one of the best things in the world. No more road trips for me for a LONG while!

Finally

I have been meaning to get a family portait taken for a while now, but some how I keep putting it off. THANK YOU Laura for driving out and taking our pictures! They turned out wonderful.

Aunt Amanda Came to Visit

Dam's sister Amanda came to visit the first week of this month. Bean had so much fun with her. Even though the visit was short they had a lot of fun at the park and feeding the horses.

It is so funny that Bean would behave for Amanda, but when I would walk into the room he would start acting out. I guess that is what I get for working all the time.

The Games We Play

Bean has been devising new games to keep himself busy these last few days. Here are a few of them:

sticky note pad: He has discovered sticky notes. He'll take one and put it on your head, wait a second and then put it on his. He'll giggle for a few seconds as he runs away. After he's out of sight he'll run back and start all over again.

Stealing food from his cousin: Natalie and Bean eat at different times of the day (she's a night owl and he's an early riser). So typically Bean's done with his food before Natalie has started hers. The way he plays this game is that he will run

up to Natalie while she is sitting in the high chair and wait for her to drop food in his mouth. He'll run away and wait till she calls for him. She calls him Geg-gee. Then it starts all over again till he looses interest or she runs out of food. We've found this is the only way for us to get him to eat veggies.

London Bridges: No matter what you are doing Bean will walk over, push your legs apart and walk under. He'll circle around and go again and again till he's tired of the game. Some days this makes cleaning the house take longer than it should.

Un To Us A Child is Flung

This year has been a wild one. One for which I would never trade the experiences that I had for anything. Leaving for China, in January, was a hard one because I had no idea what to expect. I had never lived in a country that did not speak English let a lone travel on a plane 14 hours with a six month old.

China was amazing. If I had the chance I would move back there. During the six months that we lived in Shanghai I fell in love with the people and the culture. I will never forget praying for safety every time I got into a cab, buying fresh fruit and vegetables every day, our Ayie who was amazing with Bean, the people that lived in our branch and the friends that we made.

In May we were prompted to move back to the states. Because our house in St Louis was still being rented out to friends we moved in with my parents in Meridian, Idaho. In many ways this move was a blessing. Bean got to spend time with his Papa and Abuelita before they left for their mission, Dam was able to find a part time job with a university and I was able to get some classes in while working.

Bean is growing like a weed. His favorite part of his day is going to feed the horses. He does not say the word horse yet, but is you say, "lets go see the horses" he'll start making noises like the horses do when they are snorting.

We are excited for the new year and can't wait to see what new adventures it brings us.

Thanks Giving

Thanks Giving this year was a special one. It was the last time that we we would all be together for a while. Why? Because my parents are leaving for a mission to Ghana. It's odd to think that I will not see them for 18 months. To celebrate this momentous occasion my sister Elisabeth and her family flew in from St Louis, my brother Garrett and his family flew in from San Diego and my youngest brother Christopher drove up from Provo. I have to say having seven kids all under the age of seven creates a lot of noise, but never the less it was time well spent. The men of the house created a potato gun, which they had fun shooting apples into the Boise river. We had a Bar-b-Que at the fire pit and every night was story book time with Papa.

Halloween

In our house Halloween is one of the most important holidays of the year. It is the one holiday that there is little stress and lots of fun to be had. This year Dam went as the Punisher, Bean was a turtle and I tried Japanese anime.

Bean got to help carve his pumpkin this year. He wasn't too sure what to do with it. I finally convinced Dam to let me buy one of the kits to help carve the pumpkins. Most years he just carves a pirate. I think his scary scarecrow tuned out pretty good.

This year we actually went trick-or-treating. We went to the houses up on the bench because later we went to a party to celebrate "Uncle" Jack's birthday.

Here is Dad trying to punish the turtle and Bean thought it was time to play.

I have the cutest turtle in the world!!

Adventures in Babysitting

A few weeks ago I started a full time position at the pathology lab at one of the local hospitals. Being the full time care giver of Bean has been quite a change for Dam. I was quite nervous about this at first, but right after I got used to the idea disaster happened.

Bean does not have the greatest history with stairs. Today Papa and Dam had to move the broken trash compactor from the front porch back into the kitchen (it broke a week ago and the trash that is stuck inside of it was starting to smell, so it was moved it to the front porch while we waited for the new part). While they were moving the trash compactor Bean and his cousin Natalie sneaked outside. Natalie was a good girl and came back in when Papa called for her. Bean on the other hand decided to run the opposite direction--OFF THE FRONT STEPS!! Poor kid fell head first off the steps and cut his head open. Unfortunately head wounds bleed enough that they look worse than they really are. Dam thought that he needed to take Bean to the emergency room for stitches, but Papa reassured him that he could stitch Bean up instead of sending him to the ER.

My father has an MD behind his name. While I was growing up I thought it MD stood for mad dad not medical doctor. My siblings and I tease him about it every now and then. I am going to miss having free medical service come January.

St Lukes Women's Fitness Challenge

My feet are sore, Bean cat napped, but has not fully slept, and I'm happy. This morning I got to walk a 5k with an old friend and made a new friend all at the same time. I may sometime complain about Boise, and whine about how I miss my house in St Louis, but friends and family make it all worth it.

I included a course map of the race. It started in front of the Capital building and headed south on Capital Blvd till we got to the train depo. From there we walked the bench to Americana Rd and headed north till we got in front of Ann Morrison Park.


We arrived at the start of the race at 8 am, but did not start till 9:10 am....Bean, Page and Taryn were a little cold.






Taryn and Page were so cute! Many people thought that they were twins.







At the Finish: Me, Bean, Stacie, Taryn, Sam and Page.